Lightning News

LIGHTNING RETAIN SECOND OVERALL SELECTION IN 2009 NHL ENTRY DRAFT

by
Staff Writer
/ Tampa Bay Lightning

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning have retained the second selection in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft following the completion of the NHL Draft Drawing tonight in New York. The New York Islanders won the Draft Drawing and will select first at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, June 26 and 27 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec.

The Lightning had the second greatest percentage likelihood, 18.8%, that one of the numbered sequences assigned to them would be the winning combination. Under the lottery system, only the five teams with the fewest points had the chance to win the first overall selection; no team could move up more than four spots and no team could move backward more than one.

The order of selection for the first 14 drafting positions in the first round, only, of the 2009 Entry Draft is as follows:

The remaining drafting positions will be determined at the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Drawing was conducted at the NHL’s New York office and the results were televised live on TSN in Canada and simulcast on VERSUS in the U.S.

The Draft Drawing is a weighted system to give the teams that finished with the fewest points during the regular season the greatest chance of having their combination selected. The New York Islanders were assigned the greatest number of combinations, representing a 25% likelihood that their combination would emerge. The Lightning were assigned 18.8% of the combinations, followed by the Avalanche (14.2%), the Thrashers (10.7%) and the Kings (8.1%). The remaining teams had the following chances: 6.2%, 4.7%, 3.6%, 2.7%, 2.1%, 1.5%, 1.1%, 0.8% and 0.5%.

Tampa Bay has never selected second overall at the NHL Entry Draft. The Lightning have selected first overall three times: Roman Hamrlik (1992), Vincent Lecavalier (1998) and Steven Stamkos (2008).